


Every breath I left behind (Every breath you take is mine)

by Some_Dead_Guy



Series: Grindeldore Oneshots [7]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, M/M, Not Canon Compliant - Movie 2: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Reunions, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-23 21:08:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21087857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Some_Dead_Guy/pseuds/Some_Dead_Guy
Summary: Gellert was always a bit of a possessive bastardOr, Gellert rescues Albus from Aurors who aren’t too friendly.





	Every breath I left behind (Every breath you take is mine)

**Author's Note:**

> Not beta read, so I’m sorry for mistakes!

Gellert has a new vision of Albus for the first time in  _ years _ .

Gellert sees Albus being dragged by Aurors, sees him tossed harshly into a cell. They ask him questions, and in the muddle of sound and feeling Gellert catches his own surname multiple times. They beat Albus, they maim and harm and hurt him but Gellert does not hear Albus utter a single word. They’re questioning him about Gellert, and despite everything Albus does not say  _ anything. _

Gellert wakes from the vision violently, and he grasps at his bed sheets and can feel sweat stick to his thin nightwear uncomfortably. He gasps for a moment, steadies his breath with annoying difficulty. The light spilling from his window stings his eyes so he turns away as he sits up.

His heart is racing, remnants of his vision flashing tauntingly in his mind. Those Aurors were hurting  _ his  _ Albus. Gellert suddenly feels a wave of anger, along with a possessiveness that he has not felt since that one fateful summer when he still held a red headed boy in his arms. 

He grips his sheets, grinds his teeth as he hears Albus cry out, sees his sweat matted hair and the tears that had streaked down his face still fresh in his mind. He will  _ not  _ allow those insolent Aurors to kill Albus.

Gellert is out of his bed in seconds, tossing on his clothes in a flurry of motion, some of it done with magic. He stops for a moment, runs his fingers over their blood pact he keeps over his heart.  _ His Albus,  _ he thinks, and doesn’t need to convince himself that he’s going to rip apart any Auror who has even  _ thought  _ of touching his Albus.

He rushes through the halls of Nurmengard, barking orders to his followers that they will be leaving for England immediately. No one questions him, hopefully smart enough to never do so. He sees Vinda, requests her assistance and she obliges without a second thought.

Vinda has always been intelligent, hardworking and loyal, so even when she sees that they’re at the ministry, she throws Aurors out of the way and lays her trust completely before Gellert. Gellert has always been thankful for her, and seeing her encouraging his followers to trust Gellert makes ever more grateful for someone like her.

His praise for Vinda is pushed to the back of his mind as he walks past holding cells, searching intently for the person he came here for. He briefly feels a flush of panic, because he didn’t even think about the date and time his vision had taken place, before it’s washed away and replaced with anger once he sees Albus surrounded by four Aurors. 

One of the Aurors has Albus by his hair, the three others holding their wands level to Albus. Albus is bloody, hair a mess of red curls, tacky with what looks like sweat and blood. Before the Aurors have a chance to react, Gellert has them thrown against the wall, winded and knocked unconscious. As much as Gellert wants to spend his sweet time dismembering them for doing this to Albus, his priority is getting Albus to safety.

Gellert kneels next to him, catches Albus when he tilts over in his exhaustion. Albus’s eyes are closed, and he’s gasping in pain, unable to do anything else other than lean into Gellert. Gellert carefully cradles Albus’s head, and dutifully works on healing every little ache or cut or bruise on his body with spells.

Albus seems to be between wakefulness and sleep, weakly trying to look up at Gellert. His eyes eventually open, but they’re bleary and unfocused. He blinks a few times, and Gellert can pinpoint the time in which Albus realizes it’s him. He jerks back, but is unable to get far with Gellert’s hand on the back of his head.

“Gellert.” Albus chokes, his voice a strained and garbled sound, but his shock still manages to be apparent.

“You’re going to be fine darling, my Albus.” He whispers, and Albus’s last cling onto consciousness lets go and he passes out in Gellert’s arms.

Gellert’s eyes take one last sweep around the room, catches onto the bodies of the passed out Aurors, and before Gellert can think too hard on ways to torture them he sees Albus’s wand. It’s laying near one of the fallen Aurors, as if they had been teasing Albus with it, kept it in front of its owner but not allowing him to use it.

Gellert scowls and grabs it, almost feeling nostalgic with the wood in his hand again. He’s felt it before, had held Albus’s wand once or twice when they were young. He smiles before he tucks it away safely in his coat to return to Albus.

He hears Vinda’s footsteps before he sees her, she stops for a split second when she sees them, stares in thinly veiled shock, but then quickly relaxes her expression back to its typical state. 

Before she can say anything Gellert speaks up, “I want these four to be imprisoned in Nurmengard, and I want you all to return.” He instructs, barely stays to watch Vinda nod before he’s picking Albus up and whisking him away.

———

Gellert decides to keep Albus in his own room, places him down in his large bed and makes quick work of making him comfortable under the thick blankets after he strips him of his shoes and vest. Gellert sits in a chair at the head of the bed when he’s finished, and can’t help but study Albus’s face in his sleep.

He didn’t sustain much damage from the Aurors, and Gellert feels a swell of relief at arriving before they could do much. It was a complete coincidence and luck that his vision was so close to the actual event, but Gellert briefly wonders if maybe his vision was farther into the future. He thinks that there was a possibility that what he saw was days or weeks or months of torture, instead of maybe an hour.

He feels hot with anger, clenching and unclenching his fists in his lap at the mere thought of those disgusting Aurors even looking at his Albus. 

But Albus also looks calm now, his face relaxed, kind. Albus always managed to look kind, his deep blue eyes holding a sort of whimsical wonder, kindness somehow present even in the lines of his face, in the curve of his lips. 

Seeing him now, in his bed, reminds him of their youth again. Gellert had always hoped somewhere deep inside of him that he would see Albus again, and he’s overcome with a  _ want _ that he’s always had, but is somehow amplified when the man is directly in front of him.

And even older, even still, after all this time he’s always considered Albus  _ his. _ If not all of him then certainly a piece, always felt that something of Albus will forever be irrevocably Gellert’s. Seeing Albus in the flesh like this makes Gellert feel far less satisfied with the idea of killing him.

Killing Albus hardly seems beneficial to him now, and he’s not sure he’ll ever be able to do it now. After all the trouble he’s went to trying to find that Obscurial, he doesn’t even think he  _ wants  _ Albus Dumbledore out of the way. Albus has always been good at making him feel unexpected things, think in ways he wouldn’t have otherwise.

He misses all the little clusters of emotions Albus had made him feel, and now that he’s touched and seen Albus again for the first time in over two decades, he’s finding that he almost forgot what it was like to be in the other wizard’s presence.

Gellert reaches into his coat and runs his fingers over the outline of Albus’s wand, and wonders if Albus would say yes if he were to ask him to join him. They did think alike, once, and with the same people who are relying on him to defeat Gellert now having turned on him, he thinks that he may be able to get Albus to agree. He feels a sort of heady rush at the thought, having Albus like he used to.

Before Gellert can think farther, Albus begins to stir. Albus’s eyes open slowly, and he begins to look around. His face screws up in confusion, but when his eyes land on Gellert they widen in the same shock they had earlier, like everything suddenly rushed back to him.

“Gellert.” He gasps out, blinking rapidly as if he thinks he may be dreaming. 

Gellert muses over the thought of Albus dreaming of him regularly before he says simply, “Albus.”

Albus swallows thickly, eyes darting over Gellert’s face, down his body, “You, you- where am I?”

“My home.” Gellert answers.

Albus nods absentmindedly, in a daze, before his eyes widen, “The Aurors.” He gasps, “What happened? Did you kill them?”

Gellert can’t help but frown at the thought of the men who hurt Albus, “They’re alive. For now.”

“Let them go.” Albus says sternly, mustering up a glare that manages to be intimidating even when he’s laying down, wrapped up in Gellert’s blanket.

“Why?” Gellert purses his lips, refusing to simply do as Albus says.

“Because I don’t want you killing anybody! Especially  _ for _ me!” He raises his voice, tone taking on an exasperated edge. Albus starts to sit up, pulling himself from the blanket wrapped securely around him.

Gellert clenches his jaw, “Then I’ll kill them for myself.” He mutters petulantly, and he feels almost like a child under Albus’s stare. He’s reminded of their youth once more, Albus’s sizzling glares that managed to make him feel younger. Albus seems to be the only person able to do it, and even now still manages to makes Gellert feel somehow lesser.

“Gellert.” Albus says, and Gellert concedes after only a few seconds of them staring at each other.

Gellert sniffs, turning his head away from Albus, “Fine.”

Albus hums happily, and Gellert feels a familiar flare of playful annoyance. After everything, Albus still feels the same, this Albus is still  _ his  _ Albus, no matter what.

When Gellert looks at Albus again, he seems to sober considerably, as if the situation is truly sinking in for him, and all of it is not some strange fever dream. Gellert thinks it’s almost like a fever dream, and he doesn’t want to wake up from it if it was.

“Why did you bring me here?”

“I didn’t want you to be killed by simple Aurors, it’d be rather embarrassing for you. The  _ great _ Albus Dumbledore murdered by the same people who beg him to save them.”

Albus seems to mull over his answer, chewing on his lip in thought, “How did you know? And why’d you save me, you want to kill me, do you not? Or, out of the way at least.” Albus, ever so brave Albus, looks Gellert directly in the eye as he says it. 

Gellert can’t help when his lips twitch in the effort to smile, “I had a vision. Those ridiculous Aurors hurting you because of me, and if I wanted you dead I don’t want  _ them _ to do it.”

“ _ If  _ you wanted me dead, why if?” Albus eyes him, squinting in his concentration. Gellert finds it rather endearing.

“I find I don’t want you dead.” Gellert leans in, and revels in the fact that Albus unconsciously does so to. It’s as if he’s drawn to Gellert, and Gellert’s chest swells with a twisted sort of affection. “I think you’re far more useful alive.”

Albus presses his lips together, “Useful?” He questions.

He hums, and catches the slight shiver that wracks Albus at the sound. “Yes, if only you’d join me.” 

Albus’s breath hitches, “Are you lying to me?”

“No, dear, I’ve never lied to you.” Gellert says, and he finds that it’s true. Though, he’s not completely surprised.

Albus frowns, “The truth is quite different to you than it is to everyone else. You omit things, only tell the truth others want to hear. ”

“Albus, I swear that I’ve only ever told you the truth, the  _ full  _ truth. I truly want you with me, at my side.” He experimentally places a hand on Albus’s knee, and Albus allows it.

Albus hands clench against Gellert’s sheets, almost as if he’s trying to resist the urge to reach out. “If I join you, there will be conditions to be met, Gellert.”

Expecting as much, Gellert grudgingly nods for Albus to continue. “You will murder only when I see it necessary. You  _ will _ listen to me, and you will consider what I think before making any important decisions. You will leave anyone I am close to and family alone, including Newt Scamader, my brother, Professor McGonagall, and select others _ .  _ Do you understand?”

Albus looks at him sternly, meeting Gellert’s gaze with a steely sort of resolve. Everything he’s said is non negotiable.

“Fine.” Gellert mutters, “And you will stay by my side, if I meet these conditions?” Gellert’s hand slides up from Albus’s knee to his thigh, and Albus’s breath catches.

“Yes.” Albus breathes out, almost vibrating under Gellert’s touch.

Gellert smiles, “But why?” He asks, too curious of the answer to simply take Albus then and there without further thought.

“I have no reason to want to help the ministry any longer. And I’m sure they’re aware you are the one who took me. Considering they used violence on me for thinking I’ve been conspiring with you, seeing that you’ve essentially rescued me, I wouldn’t be able to go back even if I wanted to.” Albus does not sound grieved, turning his back on them not seeming too hard of a task for him. Gellert is silently pleased at that fact.

“Is that the only reason?” Gellert says, unable to help himself from testing Albus as he used to. He sees Albus’s face light up with red, but he keeps his expression neutral.

“Perhaps I still agree with you, although I also believe changes are in order.” 

Gellert hums, looking at Albus with the intent of getting the answer he wants, and he knows Albus is aware of what he’s asking. 

Albus sighs in quiet defeat and closes his eyes, refusing to look at Gellert as he says, “I’ve missed you,” Albus face scrunches up for a moment before he forces out, “And I still love you, you bastard.”

Gellert smiles, and when Albus opens his eyes he leans over the bed and kisses him. The other wizard momentarily freezes, breath catching harshly in his throat, before he almost  _ throws  _ himself into the kiss. He grabs at Gellert’s coat and unabashedly pulls Gellert closer, finger running over his arms and his back, his hips and waist. It’s like he’s familiarizing himself with Gellert’s body again, exploring in a sort of controlled feverity. 

Gellert places a calming hand on the back of Albus’s head, barely containing his own excitement, but still urges Albus to slow down. Albus sighs into Gellert’s mouth, and it’s a content sound, one that has heat flooding Gellert’s face. 

Neither attempt to escalate any further, simply kissing, and holding each other, falling into the warmth and security of the other. Gellert ends up pulled entirely onto the bed, falling into Albus’s lap.

Gellert is the first to reluctantly pull away, huffing out a short laugh when Albus tries to follow him. They’re both gasping, and Gellert holds onto Albus’s shoulders as he steadies his breathing.

“I’m surprised you haven’t asked about your wand yet.” Gellert says conversationally, continuing before Albus has the chance to start panicking, “I have it, no need to worry, dear.” He smiles again as he kisses Albus’s temple, and vaguely notices it’s the most he’s genuinely smiled in a long time.

Albus sighs appreciatively, “Thank you.” He whispers, tucks his face into the crook between Gellert’s neck and his shoulder. 

Gellert absentmindedly runs his fingers through Albus’s hair, “I’ve missed you too, you know? Talking to you, holding you, simply just  _ seeing _ you.” He says, and is mildly disturbed with how pathetically true it is. Albus was always his greatest weakness.

Albus says nothing, only keeps his face tucked against Gellert, though clearly expecting Gellert to continue. “I regret what happened to your sister. It was… never my intention for her to come to harm.” He admits, receives little reaction from Albus other than him tensing for a split second.

“I wish we could have stayed together.” He whispers, “And I truly never did tell you a lie. I loved you, meant it each time I had said it.” Gellert inhales shakily, feels blessed with the fact Albus can’t see him at the moment, though he could probably decipher every little thing Gellert is feeling simply by the tone of his voice.

“And I love you now, after everything.” He swallows, noses against the top of Albus’s head. “I love you Albus, and I never stopped.”

Gellert feels Albus let out a stuttering exhale against his neck, and Gellert keeps his hands curled in Albus’s hair, dissuading him from trying to rise and see the fact that Gellert’s eyes are surely glassy. Gellert feels  _ vulnerable,  _ exposed in a way he hasn’t felt since he was young, since those wonderful summer nights he had spent with Albus. 

It is not an entirely unpleasant or even unwelcome feeling, but that does not mean that Gellert is willing to allow Albus to see him this way.

Albus lifts his head anyway, because  _ of course  _ he does.

Albus looks as if he’s also on the brink of tears, and if Albus starts crying Gellert isn’t sure he’ll be able to stop himself from following him. 

Gellert huffs in mock irritation, “Do not get all weepy on me, Albus.” His voice is weaker than he wanted, soft and absent of any real vindication. He barely restrains a wince at his own emotions.

Albus chuckles wetly, “Oh Merlin, how I’ve missed you.” Albus repeats and pulls him impossibly closer then, holding Gellert like he’s something precious.

Being so close to Gellert’s chest, he seems to finally notice the pendent he keeps pinned there, “You’re wearing our blood pact.” Albus says in awe, staring at it. 

“Call it sentiment.” Gellert murmurs, and isn’t as embarrassed as he’d thought he might be, “It’s the only thing I had left you.” He whispers, a hesitant admittance he hopes that Albus didn’t hear.

Albus does hear it, of course, though Gellert supposes it’s near impossible not to considering their proximity. 

Albus laughs, and it’s a happy little sound that has Gellert’s chest tightening in a way he didn’t expect. “That’s… surprisingly sweet of you.”

Gellert scoffs, “Don’t sounds so surprised, love. I’m not  _ heartless. _ ”

Gellert had mostly been jesting, but Albus looks up at him in complete seriousness, an almost wistful look taking over his features, “I know, Gellert.” He whispers.

“You do?” Gellert challenges.

“Yes, you know love, you care. You never were, nor are you heartless.” And Albus sounds so convinced, staring up at him with absolute sincerity. 

Gellert’s fingers are still entangled in Albus’s hair and he begins to play with the strands. Albus sighs, falls silent and leans into Gellert’s chest. Gellert begins to think of everything that has happened in the past couple hours, and finds himself simmering with ideas and plans that now include Albus. Albus, his Albus, is here with him, under him and touching him, and Gellert feels an all encompassing contentment. 

Albus’s hands roam over Gellert’s back, gently rubbing up in down in a soothing gesture that has any sort of tension Gellert had leaving. Gellert feels boneless, weightless, and tired, surrounded by the safety and warmth of Albus Dumbledore. It’s hardly noon, and yet Gellert is exhausted, drained in a way he isn’t unused to but does not typically hinder him.

“There are still things we need to discuss.” Albus says when he notices Gellerts eyes closing, relaxing in Albus’s hold just a bit too much.

Gellert groans, “Later, Albus.” And he yawns into Albus’s shoulder.

Albus chuckles, “Don’t you have followers? People who are going to wonder where you are? And I don’t see them taking seeing you in bed with Albus Dumbledore in stride.”

“They wouldn’t dare enter my room without permission.” Gellert says confidently, not bothering in opening his eyes.

Albus sighs, “Can we at least lay down if you must insist on sleeping on top of me?”

Gellert pulls away, tugs Albus down the bed until he’s in a horizontal lying position, and then promptly collapses on him. Albus makes a quiet  _ oomph  _ sound, but wraps his arms around Gellert as he makes himself comfortable against his chest.

“It’s too early to be sleeping.” Albus grumbles, if only to have something to complain about.

“I was up late.” Gellert grumbles back.

Gellert knows that this is most likely the calm before the storm, a brief moment of peace before everything has to get horribly complicated. He knows that a few kisses and sweet words will not rid them of their problems, but Gellert is sleepy and happy in this moment. Albus is here, alive and breathing and  _ real,  _ and Gellert sees no reason to upset everything so early.

Gellert knows Albus is his, and Gellert finds that Albus is the only person who can also say that Gellert is  _ his.  _

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I imagined this takes place in the beginning of Crimes of Grindelwald, or like instead of simply question Albus, Aurors get a bit more violent, or just an AU where Gellert didn’t get his pendant stolen simply because I really wanted to include it lmao. Seriously though, how the fuck didn’t he notice the niffler going under his ankle in the movie and stealing something that seems to be really important to him? Or maybe I missed something, I don’t know.
> 
> But anyway, as with all my writing, this is purely self indulgent. Also, lowkey have a love/hate relationship with this fic and I don’t know what I think about it, but it’s my first time writing from Gellert’s POV so that’s fun.
> 
> This note is way too long I’m sorry.


End file.
